Iron County register., 1887-04-28

NUMBER ~.
ing over miles of speculat0rs' land try.
ing to find homes-the homes and God
and native land they had supposed
they were lately fighting for. I heard
actual settlers damning these specula.
tors. while they had to pay taxes fol
improvements in roads, bridges and
public buildings, that raised the price
of SPECTATORS lands so as to make the
grabbers rich. It set me to thinking
out some plan that would make the
land too hot to be held in anybody's
pocket, but cool enough to plow. l hit
naturally upon the idea of taxing its
| value-the value that increase of pop
ulation gives it and that the speculator
gets, and of taxing no products of labor.
Considering this plan further, found
that it would not only serve the pur-
pose in hand, but that 1t was beyond
dispute the only just system of taxa
ton; SO ] proposed it to the Missouri
legislature, through Mr.. McHenry from
Iron county, but the Pukes couldn't
see it. That mifed me and I pulled
up stakes and came back to Illinois,
where I found lot of fellows soaking
their heads in such poor liquor that they
thought they could set everything to
rights by getting that pretty woman
engineer, with her big Corliss engine,
to run off greenbacks with, just as
though We could find some artificial ex-
pedient that would offset our forfeiture
of natural resources and opportunities.
Yes, my dear "X," you have and
always ought to have. and, as far as
my vote can go. always shall have
perfect right to put your honestly earn
ed dollars into land; and always to get
them out again, with interest, If you
use it for purpose in accordance with
good public policy; but you see, rs the
matter now stands, a man can take
dishonesty gotten dollars, dollars got
ten by the crooked commercial trans
actions you SO well describe, and so
justly condemn, and buy up the land
ahead of you and compel you to more
than cover his dishonest dollars with
your honest ones. But let me say that
you are, like most landless laboring
men, fool for supporting regime
that requires you to put your money
into land at all, into natural opportu-
mites; these should be open and free,
and you ought to put your spondulics
into the products of labor, into inn
provements on land, and not into land.
The land would have been here If Un-
Gle Sam had died before he was old
enough to wear his striped breeches,
and it only wants improving, and sev-
cry one ought to be encouraged to inn
prove it.
Yes stree, the sage of Murrayville is
alive to. the fact that the, taxes upon
land values-vatues, mind-fall upon
the truck we get from it. That's just
exactly why the sage kicks at taxing
them over and over again, doubling,
tripling, quadrupling, infinitiving the |.
taxes upon them, as you want to do, I
by taxing them year after year as long |
as they last.
Did you ever drive q nail in your
coffin by drinking whisky that had
been taxed hy putting the tax upon the
of the still instead of upon the
gallons of whisky? Must have put
your time in pretty well on some kind
of fuddle or your head would be clearer
now. You see the assessor did not
have to run around assessing the gall
Ions and none of them could dodge the |
tax; and, as the owner of the still did /
not have to take s'custom housen
oath. he could not he out of any of it,
as is the common custom now. He
was induced to run his still for all 1t
was worth, too, for the more gallons
he made the lighter the tax per gallons
and the better he could compete and
yet make profit. Now substitute the
value of land for the capacity of the
still, and general truck, as iron, coal,
timber, wheat, hogs, cattle, pumpkins,
and garden sass for gallons Of whisky,
and see if you couldn't lay your hon.
estly earned dollars out to better ad-
vantage, both to yourself and others,
under such system of taxation than
you could under our present foolish and
plan.
Now, *" know whereof affirm,
and you must excuse me for denying
any and every mans credit for patriot
ism, who refuses to thoroughly exam
inc these things. And must deny
him either mental capacity or enlight-
ened Christian spirit. u after proper
canvass he does not accept the doctrine
of taxing land values alone. Call me
the sage of Murrayville or dub me
Davy Crockett No. 2, but you will new
er stop me from thinking for myself or
from expressing my honest convictions.
EARMER.
Murrayville, April 10Th. 1887.
Tho Tvsrra nonf